It’s Time to Close Jurassic Park in Washington DC

Take a moment before reading this, and take out a photo in your wallet, or maybe a photo on your desk or hanging on the wall, of your daughter, son, granddaughter or grandson, niece or nephew, or someone from the next generation of Americans. Last week our so called “leaders” in Washington got drunk on spending again and ‘borrowed’ the dollars of our next generation and future generations with no regard for the cost nor the implications.

Our leaders in Washington from both parties are dinosaurs who should be sent home from what I call Jurassic park, our Nation’s capital. I supported the tax cut plan because I wanted corporations to bring the trillions of dollars they made overseas, and invest it back here in the USA. The results have been positive, with more jobs created, or bonuses for existing workers.

But to pass a budget right after the tax cut that spends another $300 Billion over two years, without any cuts, or any consequences, but just another IOU that will never get paid by our dinosaurs or actually by any one of us; it will be paid by your children and my grandchildren, and it will negatively affect their future to live the American Dream.

The budget agreement gave both sides what they wanted; republicans got a large 10% increase in defense spending, while democrats got increases to non-defense programs. But this latest budget agreement also did something that in my view is unforgiveable; it creates $1 Trillion dollar deficits every year for as long as the eye can see, and it signifies a point at which nobody cares or will stand up for fiscal discipline or the chance to reduce our deficits and control our spending and debts to manageable levels.

When President Trump took office about a year ago, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the nation's deficit would run between $500 billion and $700 billion annually for a few years, not breaching $1 trillion until 2022. But now, with lower tax revenues expected and with a new batch of spending in the budget agreement, some experts reckon the deficit will blow past $1 trillion in fiscal 2019 and keep rising from there.

"This deal shows we're in a permanent era of trillion-dollar deficits," said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan advocacy group that is now predicting $2 trillion annual deficits by 2027, with red ink worth 105 percent of U.S. gross domestic product - a high not hit since the end of World War II.

I’m shocked by this blatant disregard for even keeping the appearance of trying to control our federal spending, deficits and debts. And all of this coming from the Republican Party, the party that used to be the party of fiscal discipline. To control both houses on Congress and the White House, and to increase our debts and deficits while in control, is anything but fiscal conservatism. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who built his political career on controlling spending and opposing increasing our debts, should be ashamed of himself.

Two other groups that I am a member of are the Concord Coalition and the Peter Peterson Foundation. Both organizations, like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, are committed to demanding fiscal responsibility.

Robert L. Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition, said, “This budget is essentially a confession of failure on dealing with the nation's fiscal challenges. Last year the president’s budget at least set a goal of balancing the budget within 10 years. Yet he and Congress not only failed to work in that direction, they abandoned any pretense of fiscal responsibility by approving the recent tax and spending bills. What the nation really needs from the president at this point is some recognition that the country is on an increasingly dangerous financial path -- and some leadership in finding responsible ways to rein in the massive federal borrowing that is currently planned.”

"What you're seeing is a lack of leadership and lack of courage to address these important problems,” said Michael Peterson, President and Chief Executive of the Peter Peterson Foundation. "We've already entered a period where we have these structural deficits, and to answer that with a new round of tax cuts that are unpaid for, and a new round of spending that's unpaid for, is just adding insult to injury,"

We all know what happened to the dinosaurs, they all died during the Ice Age. My granddaughter, and your children and grandchildren deserve better.

Frank Spotorno is chairman of Bringourjobshome.com, an organization committed to the return of American manufacturing jobs and “Made in America” products.